Well the train ride from Trivandrum was fine in the end sorry if anyone was expecting more nightmare journey anecdotes …luckily managed to get a randomly positioned seat in one of the sleeper compartment hallways and made it over halfway through the trip before the conductor came to check tickets and kicked me into the general seating area. I had expected this cabin to be rammed full of people but it wasn’t that bad…..had to sit on my backpack near the toilets for a couple of hours and then got a seat around 2am and managed to get a couple of hours sleep….had make a connection at 630am and was in Pondicherry by 7 in the morning….Overall more comfortable than the bus journeys I had been doing lately on account of the extra leg room…..with all the trains so booked out I was expecting the cabins to be like livestock trucks…guess I used up all my bad luck during the Trivandrum 3am platform fuckup…
Next hurdle was that every room in town seemed to be booked out for new years ended up having to take a double room in a hotel that had a wall that leaked water into the room. It didn’t seem that bad when I looked at it although slightly mouldy, and the price was discounted so I took it. After sleeping for a few hours with the windows shut though I awoke in a the climate from an equatorial rainforest. Not great there was enough dampness in the walls to make my cloths moist. On the way out for that afternoon noticed the room number: “room 101” …hmmmm not great.
Walked down to the sea wall and stared out east across the bay of Bengal,. Was quite moving to realise this was as far east in the world as I had ever been and the ocean seemed to be calling me towards the orient.
Pondicherry is a former French colony and the streets are laid out in the French style its also one of the cleanest places ive been to in India ( despite above photo of ignored public notice). Explored town for a bit that afternoon then found a good café with free wifi, ate a burger and listened to Radio 6 while catching up on some personal admin.
Went to the local park around sun set and chatted to some people then back to the hotel to chill for a bit before heading out for new years. Opening the door of room 101 was like opening the door of a tropical greenhouse…… Got the staff to mop up a bit and watched TV for a bit trying my best to ignore the damp.
That evening had a beer with dinner in an excellent Pizzeria and then wandered through town looking for a drinking venue.....cover charges were really steep, 1000 rupees upwards and, looking at some of the dance floors, there only seemed to be men dancing no sign of girls …not a cool scene. Walked along the promenade for a while taking in the carnival atmosphere lots of people enjoying the holiday cheer. It seemed quite a lot of the population were pretty drunk already by 10pm ( Pondicherry has cheap booze due to an exemption on certain taxes because of its former independence, meaning a lot of Indians come here to party at New Years).
I eventually ended up back in my hotel bar, where the cheapest beer in town seemed to be. Drank in the new year with some local university students and chatted to most of the guys in the bar during the night ( again no females on the premises) One guy who had stayed some time in the UK spent about 20minutes shaking my hand and telling me how much he loved British people…over and over and over again in true drunken fashion, when I after I could take no more hand shaking and started talking to a different group I could hear him telling me to Fuck Off in the background…hilarious!……the students I met were really good guys though, had a good laugh and a good chat about football ( they were all Man U fans, tried to convince them of the merits of supporting Spurs).The scene by the end of the night resembled a sat night on St Mary’s street in Cardiff. Broken glass and semi digested curry spewed onto the floor, people passed drunk out all over the place and a few surly swearwords being thrown around…..a hilarious night though, everyone was hammered by the midnight fireworks display, including myself…eventually crashed in room 101 around 4am. (In true Ben Woolhead bunk-barn style was the last one drinking that night._
New years day was very chilled, had a good lie in and relatively small hangover. Spent most of the day preparing for the next leg to Taiwan online, and then went back to the seafront where the party carnival atmosphere continued. That evening chilled in the hotel and enjoyed the peace before heading to the Big city hustle and bustle of Chennai (Madras) the next day.
Overall a great time in Pondicherry (despite Orwellian bedroom) New years eve was interesting to spend drinking with Indians rather than other travellers and hilarious to see so many drunken locals.
What can I say about 2010 though …what a hell of a year! 12 months ago I was trapped in the finance department of an insurance company managing dull accounts with no hope of escape, but a fortunate redundancy and a then hell of a lot of travelling and new experience have meant I can honestly say 2010 has been the nest year of my life!…met some amazing people along the way and seen some amazing things! lets hope 2011 turns out just as good…super excited about heading to the far east next week to begin the new year but first a couple of days saying goodbye to India in Chennai …..
Proud of you, Scrutes. There's something heroic about being the last man standing, surveying the carnage, isn't there?
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